UC Davis invites the campus and broader community to open houses on May 28-29 to learn more about the draft plans that will be considered in its Long Range Development Plan update. The LRDP is a framework for campus growth looking out to the year 2015.
"During the past year and a half, we have solicited extensive campus and community input," said John Meyer, vice chancellor for resource management and planning. "These open houses provide an opportunity for the campus and wider community to see proposals that we will study in detail during the coming year. Based on the results of these analyses, the campus will recommend one of the plans to the UC Regents for approval."
Three Draft Plans
UC Davis staff and planning consultants will present three draft plans - a baseline plan, an expanded alternative and a scaled-back expanded alternative - that will be subject to environmental and other technical analyses during the coming year. Workshops in February and April focused on refining land-use options. Input received during those workshops, as well as from campus committees and campus leadership, has been incorporated into the draft plans that will be presented on May 28 and 29.
"This open house format provides people with an opportunity to better understand the complex analyses that we still need to do," said Meyer.
Campus planners and consultants will staff stations highlighting different aspects of the plans. For example, one station will highlight the environmental impact report process and another will address infrastructure and financing issues.
"We hope that people will learn more about these analyses and perhaps weigh in on issues that should be evaluated within them," Meyer added.
The baseline draft plan is based on providing all of the academic and support needs of the campus, together with housing for about 25 percent of projected student enrollment growth within the core campus. No housing for new faculty or staff would be provided in this option. Given the limited prospects for residential development within the City of Davis, this alternative suggests a significant amount of commuting by students, faculty and staff from housing located outside the immediate area.
The expanded-alternative plan proposes housing a significant share of projected campus growth on campus land in addition to the growth represented in the baseline draft plan. The planning goals used in creating this plan assume providing housing for about 90 percent of new students, 75 percent of new faculty, and 40 percent of new staff projected between now and 2015.
To meet these goals, approximately 3,900 student beds, and 1,100 faculty and staff units would be developed on about 430 acres of university-owned land west of Highway 113 and south of Russell Boulevard. Additionally, about 1,500 student beds would be constructed within the campus core.
A third draft plan will be presented that scales back the expanded alternative. This third plan reduces the land area for housing west of Highway 113 by about 170 acres, and instead proposes to accommodate a portion of student housing needs through a combination of infill development on campus and investigation of other sites within the City of Davis. The number of proposed faculty and staff units has also been reduced by about 35 percent in this alternative.
"We heard loud and clear concerns from both the campus and community about the need to employ multiple strategies for student, faculty and staff housing," said Bob Segar, assistant vice chancellor for campus planning.
"This scaled-back alternative represents a balancing of many competing needs, both internally and in the community. It would not provide the entire amount of housing to meet our goals. In this alternative we would look to distribute housing to multiple sites next to the core campus, and look for housing partnership opportunities with the City of Davis. We think this third plan responds to many concerns that were raised in our April meetings."
Segar said the campus will study the expanded and scaled-back plans during the summer, with hopes of choosing one or both this fall for detailed environmental review.
"The third alternative has been quickly assembled based on public responses to our April workshops," Segar said.
"We want to examine the implications of the scaled-back version with campus committees and campus leadership. We're hopeful that we can complete that review this summer, so that we can define a single expanded alternative to accompany the baseline plan for environmental review."
The environmental review and a proposed plan are expected to be submitted to the UC Board of Regents for approval in the fall of 2003.
May 28-29 Open Houses
The LRDP Draft Plans Open House will be held during two identical sessions. The first session will occur on Tuesday, May 28, at the University Club on the UC Davis campus (on Old Davis Road, just west of A Street) from 12 noon until 6:30 p.m. Parking is available in Lot No. 5, with access from A Street south of First Street.
Exhibits about the plans and subsequent detailed analyses will be available for public review from noon until 4 p.m. The plans will be formally presented from 4 to 4:45 p.m., with an hour following for questions and discussion. The staffed exhibits will remain open until 6:30 p.m.
The second session will be held 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 29, at Patwin Elementary School, 2222 Shasta Dr. in Davis. Exhibits about various aspects of the plans will be available for public review from 6:30 to 7 p.m. The plans will be formally presented from 7 to 7:45 p.m., with an hour following for questions and discussion. The staffed exhibits will remain open until 9:30 p.m.
The open houses are free and open to the public. No reservations are required.
Karl Mohr is associate director of public and private partnerships at UC Davis.